[QUOTE=Doug9345;387199][QUOTE=dsafety;387118]This product is not about doing it cheaper. It is all about doing it better. For me, the cheap wire cages are nearly useless because many of my plants get very large. The cages made from wire rolls work great but the rust and become a storage problem during the off season.
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The only reason your cages are easier to store is that they come apart because you aren't gluing them. I would be very trepidacious that they wouldn't disassemble on their own with a big plant and a wind. A couple of years of assembly and disassembly will make it worse.
As long as it is acceptable to have two of the cross pieces one inch higher than the other two, it takes one more length of 1/2" pvc 18" long which will cost 27 cents, one more 3/4" x1/2" tee which will cost 46 cents, and four 1" nipples cut from 3/4" pipe at a cost of 8 cents for all four, but it requires three less of your fittings at a cost a MINUS $4.99. per layer. Total savings per layer is $4.18 or $16.64 per cage.
In summary too much cost for too little gain. It's only meaningful if one MUST have a triangular pvc cage that they built themselves and are willing to spend $30 on it. If I'm going to spend $30 on a tomato cage and build it myself there has to be a dozen materials and fifty ways to do it. I would have at least made it a four way tee so a person didn't need the 90° tees. It would look nicer at least
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To build a 5' square PVC cage, you will need 32, T connectors, 20 post sections and 16 horizontal pipe sections. With our system, you need 12, T connectors, 15 post sections and 12 horizontal pipes, plus 12 or our Tomato Triangle connectors.
The 1/2" T connectors are inexpensive but they will limit you to using 1/2" pipe for the posts. In my experience, the 1/2" pipe is too flexible and not suitable for supporting the load handled by the posts. You can get Ts that have two 3/4" openings and one that fits 1/2" pipe but they cost almost as much as our connectors.
You could also go with all 3/4" material, (pipes and connectors). That cage would be as strong as our system but a little bulky.
Our goal with this design was to create the very best tomato support system out there. You will have to be the judge as to whether we hit the mark or not. The bottom line is that if our Kickstarter campaign is unsuccessful, we will not be able to bring the Tomato Triangle to market. If that happens, the only PVC option out there will be the DIY square version. I am hopeful that that we will be able to offer gardeners another choice.